"Action!" That's a word you won't hear film director Clint Eastwood shouting when he's ordering actors to start a scene.

"I always say 'go when you’re ready,' rather than the traditional 'action!'", the Oscar-winning director of Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby told the Tribeca Film Festival. "The word 'Action’ puts a bad connotation out there, like some firecracker that goes off to get everyone going.”

The 82-year-old, who was in conversation with fellow film director Darren Aronofsky (below), said he is full of passion to keep going, and may be making films for the next two decades.

Eastwood said: "Sometimes when you are not in production, you think, 'ah, I’m about to take some time off or something', but then the moment you pull the trigger on one shot, you are kind of going, 'Ok, I’m ready, let’s go.' You’re ready to charge the hill, and right through the picture. And I don’t think you ever lose it, probably. Who is the Portuguese director who is 105 and still making films? That’s always everybody’s dream. Wouldn’t it be great to be 105 and still making films?"

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Eastwood was referring to the 104-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira (below), who made his first film in 1927 and was giving a lecture only last month at the International Film Festival of Porto. Calling the idea of working until you are over 100, "the ultimate optimism," Eastwood told the New York audience that "in the early days it was more of a fight to get films green-lit. Now, they go, 'Oh, well, if he's the old guy... '"

Eastwood's 'Directors Talk' event was preceded by a showing of Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story, a documentary on his work as a director, featuring interviews with Meryl Streep, Gene Hackman, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese among others.

Eastwood explained that he avoids using digital film and said that he has several films in development. He last directed 2011's J. Edgar,” a biopic of the FBI chief J Edgar Hoover, and also acted that year in the baseball movie Trouble With the Curve. Asked about the role of the director in a film production, he said: “A lot of people fell in love with the auteur theory, but you’re merely a platoon captain.”

Eastwood also joked about his willingness to take suggestions for a scene from anyone: “You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director,” he said.